re: Our increasingly trashy American culture

So I was right, blaming old people for the borrowing is dumb And once again, it does not matter who or what is getting money transferred to them from future generations, this is all part of this society, and this society needs to borrow to remain in a state of material 'progression'.

re: Our increasingly trashy American culture(Posted by Revelator on 1/27/13 at 6:54 pm to Lsupimp)

Yes LSUpimp. Even those on here that try to play cute and compare powdered wig wearing to the complete disregard for all rules, manners and civility know in their hearts we have digressed as a society. They just try to convince themselves in their minds that all is well while rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

re: Our increasingly trashy American culture(Posted by Lsupimp on 1/27/13 at 7:02 pm to Revelator)

Indeed. It amazes me how little moral intelligence some people have. They are so awash in obfuscatory psuedo-intellection, and just bad facts and misconceptions about the past, combined with the self-important arrogance of youth, that they find it nearly-impossible to imagine it as other than how it is right now. We have gone from "suck" being too risque for polite conversation to "suck that Tiger Dick, bitch"- and we should be GRATEFUL. FORWARD !

re: Our increasingly trashy American culture(Posted by texashorn on 1/27/13 at 7:13 pm to texashorn)

More:

quote:The Dallas Police Department has altered the way crime is counted in several areas over the years. This creates an apples and oranges situation where, because crimes are counted differently, it is difficult to determine actual crime trends. Here are some of the known accounting changes The Dallas Morning News has noted in recent years:

Aggravated assaults: The News found in a 2009 investigative series that as a result of changes made in 2007, the department misclassified many aggravated assaults, meaning they didn’t go into the city’s violent crime tally. In a one-week sample of cases, a News review estimated that the department’s tally of aggravated assaults should have been at least 50 percent higher.

The department in 2007 changed the way it counts some crimes to subscribe to what is known as the “time and place” rule. Under this philosophy, if a string of crimes happened in the same relative area and probably were committed by the same suspects, the string of incidents counts as only one crime. For example, 15 car burglaries can count as only one crime if they occurred about the same time and place. (The rule does not apply to offenses such as murder, rape and aggravated assault. It applies to crimes such as theft, robbery and some burglaries).

Car burglaries: The News found that as a result of reporting changes made in 2008, Dallas police were discarding reports of seemingly legitimate car burglaries as untrustworthy. Police officials acknowledged flaws and made changes.

Residential and business burglaries: The News found in 2009 that the department continues what it says is a long-standing practice of classifying a case as vandalism — not burglary — if someone kicks in the door of a residence but is scared away by a person or alarm. The department’s reporting policy cuts Dallas’ reported burglary rate. A one-week sample of cases examined then by The News estimated the reduction for that week at about 10 percent.

re: Our increasingly trashy American culture(Posted by TxTiger82 on 1/27/13 at 7:13 pm to texashorn)

quote:It has been shown time and again that crime stats, all the way from murder to shoplifting, are cooked.

Nah, you want to throw the baby out with the bathwater but I don't buy it. Cooked numbers can't explain all of the decline in crime nationwide, especially given that the cooking would have to occur in the same ways in many different places.

You are overstating your case, at this point.

quote:But nearly a third of that reduction is because of a new policy that makes it harder for store owners to report shoplifting cases under $50, The Dallas Morning News has found.

Right, and so nearly 2/3 of the decline is real. That's my point. Crime has been going down, and there is no really good argument against that observation.